Digging Deeper, The $64,000 Question

So how do you look at sermons and messages on Sunday?  Take a moment and think about it from the perspective of the speaker. They are trying to convey some sort of message about the topic of messy church, right? Hopefully the message conveys a practical or call to the action, on part of the person sitting in the audience (that’s you).

That's the whole point of “Beyond Sunday”.   It's super hard to get up on the stage and convey a message for 20 minutes and then rely on hope that's someone is going to take away what you want them to take away.

This week's topic was messy wisdom and there were a couple of little hints in there that we can dig into, but we also must filter through the noise of the service as well.  Noise is defined as our thoughts, scriptures that are being read, the music of the service, and the other speakers. I don't know about you, that's hard for me. Here's the statement that I heard that resonated the most.

We have to become Christians who dig deep.

That statement can come out of the mouth of the speaker hanging in the air for a second or two and then be lost forever if we don’t notice. The most obvious question from that statement is how do you do that?  How do we become Christians who dig deep? How do you do that? There's not much page time in the Bible that we can call on from a personal point of view. If you come to church on Sunday and expect to be fed and not ponder some of the things that are said, it makes it even harder.  So how do we dig deep?

I don't think the answer is simple. We have been taught that the answer lies in our study of the scriptures. But what happens if we're interpreting those scriptures in a way that doesn't help us dig deep? This is the $64,000 question, and honestly, we don't do it justice to the people we lead because of……time.

 Time is the key to discovery and having a plan to dig deep is the roadmap to getting there.  Before we had GPS or the phone telling us how to get somewhere, we had one of two ways to find a location or an address.  We either knew where it was, or someone told us.  That holds true for digging deeper in our spiritual life, we either have been there before or someone must teach us. 

And before I go further, I might even add, we either really want to dig deep to find an answer to something, or we want to learn to dig deep because we are stuck in a rut of what to read or study.  Either choice has some interesting outcomes. This is called wrestling, and it breaks the status quo of religion.

Here is the definition of the status quo:

“The status quo refers to the human tendency to keep things the same to avoid risky outcomes, which is known as the status quo bias.”

Do you really want to go “Beyond Sunday”?  There is a risk.  Do you want to really dig deeper?  There is a risk.  I will go a step further and say, do you really want to be a part of something bigger than yourself?  There is a risk.

Hopefully you are asking yourself what is the risk?  Ask, go ahead, I will wait.  In fact, don’t run ahead on this one.  Slow down, ponder, think deeply, sit in your favorite spot or have a discussion with a friend.  What is the risk of digging deeper?  I won’t tell you the answer and rip you off on the joy of discovery.  But I will say this, the risk has a good outcome, if you open that door.

Consider this quote from Marianne Williamson's 1992 poem, "Our Deepest Fear"  It is so powerful that they even used it in a movie. (Coach Carter, 2005)

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. It's not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Here is my personal take:

• The goal is not to become powerful beyond measure, but to realize that digging deeper does just that to
• Digging deeper wakes us up to the fact that we are part of something bigger, but only if we open the door.
• Digging deeper is scary and has risk, but it makes others around us stronger. When we dig deep, we unconsciously allow others to do the same, that’s liberating.

Are you intrigued? Ask.  Do you want to know how?  Ask.

I am rooting for you.